What altitude do you need a resort to be?

A snowHead

OK so after the 'How many Km's des a resort need to be' thread. I'm interested to hear other snowHead

take on this.

I read allot of people saying (here and elsewhere) what about resort 'X' and 'But X is too low for March is it not?' 'Where is snow sure' 'I want a good resort for intermediates, beginners and none skiers- blah blah blah

I like skiing in Austria, although I usually ski once maybe twice in France a season I just like Austria as an overall ski destination. If I was worried about altitude I wouldn't go to most Austrian resorts and wouldn't have skied in most over my 20 idd years of skiing. I've skied in Saalbach in May and had great conditions (really) but I do have a love of slush only bested by powder........ Toofy Grin

I've skied high alt resorts in January only to have better conditions in sub 2000m resorts in late March.

cran

It helps if it's higher at the top than at the bottom...

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Grizwald, The amount of snow in a resort also depends on other factors such as latitude - most Scandinavian resorts are much lower than the Alps, but being a wee bit closer to the North Pole helps. wink

Regional climate also is important eg it can be very cold in Quebec in Winter, so for example the very good resort of Le Massif which is by the side of the St Lawrence river has a base elevation of 36metres above sea level.

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It depends when we're going. Our holidays tend to be early and late in the season due to school holidays. Christmas and Easter school holidays we aim for. As a result we try to go fairly high if going to France, especially at Christmas (not such a problem for Easter school hols). We did go to Ellmau a couple of Christmases ago which is about 700m, but snow was a bit dodgy down to town.

Amusingly this Christmas I suggested we go to Tignes. The OH is a bit of a wimp and said, "oh no, Tignes is really high so can get really cold at Christmas, I'll not be able to handle it". So we're going to Cervinia instead, which is just as high, just that the OH hasn't been there and got cold there previously.

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You need atleast 200km of runs for a week's vacation. 100km for a weekend.

In the Western European Alps, the minimum village height is 1800m in Nov / May, 1500m in Dec / Mar / Apr, 800m in Jan / Feb.

If you are buying property, the minimum height to evade longterm global warming is 2000m.

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3,500m. Otherwise it isn't worth going.

rolling eyes

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

Don't think I could put forward a better remark than Whitegold above.

After all it is free

Also there are plenty fo factors that are way more important than altitude if you want cold/snow.

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At night I would prefer to be at sea level, just to be able to get a good nights sleep(as that never happens at altitude)

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Personally I like to ski resorts where I can avoid people with 'altitude attitude' - you know, the 'we only stay in the highest resorts in europe because nowhere else is snow sure even in Janaury' attitude.. Wink

You know it makes sense.

Nobody yet seems to have said that the snow line is lower the further East you go in the Alps. Thus Austrian resorts can be lower than French ones.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

I think most of the Austrian resorts I have been to are around 700m, but the ski areas go much higher than that as the villages are normally based on the valley floor. Altitude is less of an issue on the eastern side of the Alps. I have had both terrible snow conditions in La Plagne (1800m) and Pas De La Casa (2100m) and fantastic snow conditions in Kitzbühel (760m) all the same week in March. There are no guarantees with weather. Altitude is only a small part of the story.

A snowHead

Anything below 1000m in the Alps feels like a hill.

Hills are for beginners and oldies.

A snowHead

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Cham is at 1035m.

Engelberg is at 1015m.

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Total length of pistes divided by 10.

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The altitude of Chamonix town is pretty irrelevant, isn't it? the fact that it's surrounded by very high mountains, and glaciers, does make a teeny bit of a difference. rolling eyes

Even in one country altitude is only part of the story. Other factors make a big difference. For example, the Beaufortain has higher snow levels at any given altitude than the Haute Tarentaise - almost invariably. The figures are on the Meteo France web site.

And of course latitude makes a huge difference, as do other aspects of geographical position - distances from oceans, ocean currents etc. It's as daft to get fixated on altitude as it is to get fixated on kms of piste.

Even late in the season, when you are more likely to find good conditions if you go to a higher altitude resort, in any one region, other factors come into play - Les Contamines, with some of its main skiing facing east, can have better conditions in late season than any of the Chamonix areas except the Grand Montets.

In cold periods, the last thing you want is to be at high altitude - no trees, higher winds, lower temperatures, etc etc. But it's pretty special to be skiing good snow at 2,800m in late spring, when the valleys are full of primroses and cows.

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

After all it is free

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Great thread Toofy Grin

You know it makes sense.

I for one found snow better in Austria possibly because there are relatively less skiers going there. The majority of icy runs, with a lot of traffic, I could remember were in France and Scotland.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

I find that Altitude is only one of the factors to take into account. When booking a holiday I tend to use this simple formula to GUARANTEE that the resort I go to will be covered in snow:

(1 + x)n = 1 + (nx)/1! + (n(n - 1)x2)/2! + (n(n - 1)(n - 2)x3)/3! + ...

N =Village Altitude

If X <= 50 & assuming that p(x) = q(x)s(x) + r(x) you are guaranteed to have a good snow cover for your chosen dates.

A snowHead

Leeds_Skier, I concur.

A snowHead

1609m high.

So that you can join the mile high club at night! wink

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I believe Niseko tops out around 1300. Who's gonna claim that's not high enough for good snow?

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Fort William 5 metres (Nevis lift base nearly 50metres) wink

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

After all it is free

Many large ski areas will have different bits to stay in well over 500 M apart in altitude, unless you are obsessed with the quality of the snow on your homeward run the altitude of where you sleep is a pretty trivial part of planning a skiing holiday. At different times of the year the altitude and aspect of the bulk of the slopes may be an important consideration.

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Grizwald, How high do you want it Sir. Yes Sir we have one for sale at that hight.

Help!!

What altitude do you need a resort to be?

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